I saw him only for a second before he dropped out of the sky, landing in a crouch mere feet from where I thought the circle started.
My heart stammered as he rose, his wings emanating a soft white glow as he spread them wide. Show-off. He’d changed into a faded pair of jeans. Where he got them, or better yet, who he borrowed them from, I decided I didn’t want to know.
At least right now.
From opposite sides of what I hoped was a functional trap, we stared at one another. Too many seconds ticked by unused. I needed to get him in the trap.
I stepped forward, only about a foot. “Miss me?”
His head tilted. “You did something. I know you did. I felt this uncontrollable urge to come here.”
“You weren’t watching me?”
He shook his head. “I can no longer watch you.”
Because he could no longer trust himself? There wasn’t time to figure that out. “Well, I didn’t want to walk the streets looking for you.”
“I told you to stay away from me. That I would hurt you,” he said, voice a low rumble. “And yet, you did something to bring me to you. I’m beginning to believe you have a death wish.”
“You think you can kill me?” I summoned my grace, and it responded in a rush. The corners of my eyes turned white as whitish-gold light spilled out from my shoulder, swirling down my arm. The hilt of the Sword of Michael formed against my palm, warm and welcomed. The flaming blade erupted, crackling and hissing. “Then come and get me, Fallen.”
For a heart-stopping moment, I didn’t think he would rise to the challenge. That he’d refuse, and while that could be further proof that he was still in there, I didn’t need Zayne rearing his head right now. I needed the Fallen.
“I don’t think it’s a fight you want.” A cruel smile twisted his lips. “It’s me.”
My skin flushed but I lifted my chin. “Maybe it is you I want. Maybe not.”
His head twisted from side to side and then his jaw hardened. “Can’t say I didn’t try to warn you,” he growled, and he moved so fast that he was nothing but a blur of gold and white.
But I saw the moment he entered the trap.
Golden, shimmery light pulsed low to the ground, in the shape of a circle. Zayne skidded to a stop, his chin dipping as he stared at the fading light—at his shirt.
He lifted his head. “What did you do?”
“Leveled the playing field.”
His lips pulled back, and the sound that came from him sent a bolt of fear through me. It was inhuman. Terrible. He charged forward, and I braced for the trap to fail—
He jerked to a stop, hands balling to his fists, and he was close enough I could see the fury etched into his features. His upper body tipped forward. Tendons stood out from his neck. Muscles flexed along his shoulders as he fought, but he went down on his knees, just like the Crone promised.
Vivid, burning eyes lifted to mine. From his heaving chest, his voice rumbled, “You cheated.”
“I did.” I brought the sword forward, wrapping my other hand around the hilt.
His eyes narrowed. “You going to use that? On me? Thought you loved me, little nephilim?”
“I do,” I whispered, throat and eyes burning.
“Love,” he spat as his wings lowered and his chest rose, as if he were daring me to do it. “Do your worst, nephilim, but strike true. If you don’t, I will get out of this. Then I will destroy you and I won’t care.”
“But I think you would,” I told him as tears blurred his features. I stepped forward. “I love you. I love you now and I’ll love you forever.”
I moved before he had a chance to respond to my words, unable to truly allow myself to consider what I was doing. I drew the Sword of Michael back.
I love you.
My heart stuttered and then cracked. The next breath I took went nowhere as a violent storm of emotions erupted out of me in a scream.
I love you.
Thrusting the flaming, golden sword forward, I shoved it deep into Zayne’s chest, into his heart.
15
Time slowed and then seemed to stop as his gaze met mine and held. His were wide with what looked like shock, and in the mess of tumbling thoughts, one became clear. I didn’t think he believed I would do this. Did the shock filling those stunning blue eyes come from the part of him that had been lost when he Fell or from the part of Zayne that remained inside him?
I didn’t know, but I felt that fiery blade as if it had been shoved deep in my own chest, piercing through my heart and my soul. Panic fluttered through me, mixing with soul-deep grief. I wanted to rewind time. I wanted to go back and to have never done this, because if it didn’t work, I wasn’t sure...I wasn’t sure I could survive this even if it was the right thing to do. I’d been foolish to think I could weather this—that I was strong enough, brave enough. I wasn’t. I wasn’t inhuman, and I was sure my father would be disappointed to realize that, but it was true. If this didn’t work, the look in his eyes, the shock and disbelief, would haunt me long after my body was nothing more than dust. It would kill me. Maybe not in the physical sense, but it would devastate every part of me that made me who I was. I wouldn’t be the same, and in a moment of startling certainty, I realized that this was what Gabriel had meant by my rage being my ruin. I would become something as cold and terrible as Sulien.
And then...then time was no longer frozen.
Zayne’s eyes closed as he threw his arms back, a terrible scream splitting the night air. His wings lifted, each beautiful, lush wing spreading wide. His head kicked back, causing those tendons in his neck to stand out even further.
From the center of his chest, where the sword was buried deep, a pulse of energy rippled out, washing over his shoulders and arms in streaks of rolling, golden light. There was a brief second where he was awash in the heavenly fire, his body and features completely lost in the blaze. I could no longer see him.
Terror seized me as a tremor coursed through my body. Fearing the fire would swallow him whole, I tried to pull the sword free. It wouldn’t budge, and the sound—oh God, the sound that was coming from Zayne... It was animalistic and raw, shredding through me. My heart lurched as I stepped back with my right leg, bracing myself and tugging. There was no give. The sword seemed lodged, as if it were now a part of his body as it was an extension of mine, and nothing like that had ever happened before.
The whirling, whipping fire suddenly retracted, sucking back to where the blade was embedded deep.
Silence.
No screams.
No calls from nearby birds or insects.